That's No Moon -Gaming Thread!

Zakn here to go through some Gaming Stuff!

Afternoon/Evening M&M's! I hope you had/are having a great weekend. I ended up working alot this week, so there's not alot from me this week.

First off, I would like to encourage everyone that has a game (or games) they play to do a write up of things that are going on with the stuff you play, and send it to me at aoshqgaming at gmail dot com. I'll help you with any editing that is needed and we'll get it up with Attribution.

Luckily I was able to watch a decent amount of the WCS Korea Nationals (Star Craft 2), but more on that later from our resident E-Sports Expert. Despite the debacle that happened at Streetfighter X Tekken (And what happened at Eve Fanfest this year), It's really cool to be able see streams/Casts really go mainstream for just about every game. Although with that greater amount of coverage, goes greater amounts of scrutiny, visibility, and accountability to the larger Gaming Community. We are going through some growing pains, but alot of this is required as Gaming further enters the larger cultural Mainstream. I even saw stories about what happened at StreetFigher X Tekken in my local paper. Granted it was a two month old story at that point, but still. (If you don't know what happened, Google/Bing is your friend)

More below the fold.

Since I was working so much, I really just played on my 3DS during breaks/lunch. I'm not planning on buying the new XL version, but it's out there, so check it out if you are looking for handheld gaming options. Mostly I played the New Super Mario 2.

It is really a game all about the bling. Get that money! It's refreshing to not be totally stressed out like I was getting in some of the Special levels in Super Mario 3D Land. Perhaps that comes later.

Whats really notable about this game though, was that it was available day 1 in their E-Store. I came home from work Sunday morning, connected to my wifi, and downloaded the game. In theory Nintendo is going to do more of this, and it makes sense for them. They charged me the full ride, but didn't need to manufacture/ship the cart or give retailers a cut. As this goes on, I hope they cut prices for "E-versions" ala Kindle/Ebook stores to maximize their First Party content. And if you are Nintendo, that's really all you have. They need to leverage their first party titles to push sales and get an installed base, then push that their platform is different enough to merit 3rd party development. I think the 3DS is different enough to do that, I'm less sure on things like Wii U. It wouldn't shock me in the least to see Nintendo death spiral and go tits up if they continue to make poor decisions.

I've been playing some Eve too, but there's not alot of news that I know about. The War in the North has been a real grind. Much more enjoyable than some of the massive structure shoots recently, but never the less grindy and against very competent foes. In fact the most Notable things have been Titans being Stupid. If you want more news on that, Check the site I just linked. They have CEO updates from all sides and Battle Reports from the notable encounters.

Welp this happened as I was writing this post. Ouch. I was a "Hero" Dictor so what my job was to get bubbles on as many of the Dreadnaughts as possible before they could exit. Someone frapsed it, so maybe there will be video for next week. The Killboards are still syncing, but it was pretty one sided. This is very indicitive of the War in the North. One side messes up, gets the crap kicked out of it, the other side messes up, they get the crap kicked out of them. Konkers.

If you do play Eve, Don't forget to join the Moron channel, we really are getting some decent numbers and it's been really fun. It's AoSHQ

If you want to chat with me Grab me on Twitter or email me at aoshqgaming at gmail dot com

Thanks And See you Next week. (Maybe)

For the 'Ettes

Ola, Dude coming to ya from the wonderful world of Tyria.

Well, not only did Curiosity get delayed, it also got a new name, Curiosity: What's Inside The Cube. Personally, I can't but help love Peter Molyneux no matter how hard he trolls people even when he doesn't mean to, he just has grand ideas that hasn't worked in almost 20 years. It's a social experiment that he's conducting and I can't wait. All it is, is a giant cube made up of a bunch of other cubes and everyone sits there tapping on it till there can only be one to find out what the fuck is in the cube (I personally have money riding on it being a pic of his balls) or at least till someone cracks it. It's up to that person to tell people what they saw as that is it.

Speaking of trolling, Square Enix knew how to push people's buttons with their announcement of an announcement with the possible reappearance of The World Ends With You. With dashed hopes, the announcement ended up being a iOS port and a OST. Fucking assholes. I REALLY want a new game as the first was really damn good but not a damn port. I'll take the soundtrack though as it had good music.
Top it off, Square announced a new Final Fantasy game....for iOS and Android for a whopping $28.99. Dunno why they are going back to the well of the structure of FFIV: After Years considering it was a stinker and being episodic made it even worse.

With Kinect sales lagging, Microsoft dropped the price to $110. Of course, if they wanted to boost sales, they would release the delayed Crimson Dragon on XBLA considering they delayed it a week before it was supposed to be released and we've never heard from it since. I want a new Panzer Dragoon :(
Somehow Interplay found a way to make hate them even more as they're bringing back the name Black Isle Studios. Just no.....NO.

Some great news came out of Gamescon last weekend, a game that I REALLY want to play, Tokyo Jungle for the PS3 got a US release date and price. Hits September 25th at the low price of $15. I dunno how to explain it so here is a trailer that will make you want to buy it on PSN when it releases

Of course bad news wise, the Vita has been stillborn with it racking up a measly 2.2 million units sold in a span of 7 months worldwide. Sad as the system is nice but everything thing else sucks (online and game wise). I'm stupid for buying one, I should have just bought a PSP since that is what I use it for anyways.

Telltale let loose that the third episode of The Walking Dead is finally done and it should be out this week or next since they're doing a simultaneous release across all platforms. Took them long enough. (Zakn here, yea it's about f'ing time)

Even though it will never be made, at least Uncharted got a decent pair of new writers to tackle a script. A marriage of Uncharted and the National Treasure films should be a good pairing.

In the world of eSports, next weekend is The International as 16 teams (14 invites and 2 qualifying teams) duke it out in a DOTA 2 tournament with a whopping $1.5 million payout. Steam released a spectator client (if you aren't in the DOTA 2 beta) where you can watch it with play by play (more than likely Toby for the English caster) and the ability to control the camera by yourself. Should be fun.

The Korean Nationals wrapped up bright and early Saturday morning with Creator coming from the loser's bracket toppling Squirtle in two sets of games. Standard PvP finals with non stop cheese though it being Creator doing the cheesing is interesting as I didn't think he had it in him as his play style is more defensive but he pulled it out with the macros that he uses in online games and not games in a arena. A couple of screw ups but still great play from him. Hopefully this is a sign to come that he's matured a bit as a gamer to be able to do it live which is odd considering he is still only 16. (Zakn here, it was a really compelling set of matches, and we'll get them linked when they hit youtube next week)

The big news of the esport scene this past week is one giant clusterfuck between KeSPA and ESF. KeSPA is back into their old playbook of strong arming the competition when they are holding a weak hand. KeSPA is a conglomerate of sponsors reconized by the South Korean government who makes their players sign contracts that dictate where they can and can't play. ESF is a quasi Starcraft 2 players union who were taken aback when KeSPA reneged on their their partnership between ESF, Blizzard and KeSPA which would have had KeSPA players playing on GOMTV and ESF players playing on KeSPA's starleagues (which is the big time for esports in Korea). And of course this is happening on the eve of the next starleague that starts on Tuesday. So in retaliation, ESF pulled their players from the tourney which is half the field. In trying to save face in losing half the field after they built them up to the KeSPA crowd, KeSPA said that they would play in the not the next season on GOMTV but the following season. It being KeSPA who is a bunch of notorious cocksuckers who have no problem with backstabbing as long as they stay in power, ESF still told KeSPA to go fuck themselves and they won't be part of the upcoming starleague.
On one hand, I grasp that KeSPA is trying to save their players from embarrassment of getting crushed by ESF (especially their big name Flash not doing too hot in the transition between SC1 and SC2) but on the other hand ESF and GOMTV has laid the groundwork of a thriving SC2 scene of where the best play be it Korean or foreigners with a very open policy of letting players play in any tourneys they want (they go out of their way to reschedule games when players are here in the States or Europe playing). And unlike KeSPA who has a walled in approach of keeping the scene homogenized, GOMTV has made it global with having the best English announcers and having specials with the players for the outside world.

cosplay of the week pic(s)1 2

posted by Gang of Gaming Morons! at 01:22 PM

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